Temperature: The Opposite End of the Spectrum

[emily.j.roth]

I'm a college student and I rent my house off-campus. During the summer, I've had no problem keeping my chin cool (we have central air, thank god. Normally my room is 66-68 degrees F, but during the winter my room is absolutely freezing (I actually have to move my bed to a smaller room just so my space heater will actually keep me warm.) :cold: It can pretty drafty in my room partly because I have 5 windows and my room is fairly large, but I do have 3 heating vents in there. Last winter was pretty rough in Ohio and I didn't have my chin then, so I'm worried about how cold it might get this year. If I had to guess, I would probably say my room was in the mid to upper 50's from January-March, and there were a few days last year that the ice took our power lines out, so it was probably in the 40's then. I know that chinchillas like cooler air, but how cold is too cold? I looked up their natural climate in the Andes, but I could only find that the average is 64. If it is too cold, it won't be a problem to move his cage into my smaller room with me, but I don't want to change his environment unless it's absolutely necessary. Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[arf2184]

My chin room is usually 55-65F in the winter. The chins start cuddling with their cagemates more or spending most of their time in their houses around 55F.

 

[AZChins]

Temps in the high 50s are fine. I have let my chin rooms get to maybe 55 or 56 and the chins really do love it. The only time when I worry is when a mama delivers her little ones...then it's a little cool. The others adore the cooler temperatures, but they do tend to cuddle a little more the cooler it gets.

 

[tunes]

I didn't turn a heater on at all in my chin barn last year and it sat between 52 and 55 degrees and the chins were absolutely loving it. I do worry, as Susan said, about the bebbies, but all of my breeder cages have houses in them, and I put a thick layer of bedding down. they seem to stay pretty warm in there and are up and running like crazy demons each day, so I assume they are doing well.